Foods, particularly precooked and cured foods such as bacon, sausage, ham, or bologna that contain a large amount of water and solidified grease, can cause problems when cooked in a microwave oven. Water in such foods is vaporized by contact with the heated melting grease as the food cooks, causing tiny explosions that can splatter portions of the grease around the oven. Thus, persons who cook such food in microwave ovens typically place the food on a pan that can collect the melted grease and cover the food with several layers of paper towels to restrict such splattering.
While many specially designed cooking structures have been suggested to minimize the grease collecting and/or splattering problems, known cooking structures for use in microwave ovens have required special care to avoid spilling the collected grease after the cooking is complete.
It is known to place a liquid absorbent pad within a package for absorbing food byproducts such as moisture and grease exuded from food during cooking in a microwave oven. Such pads must not only provide sufficient capacity for the quantity of food byproducts produced during cooking, but must withstand the elevated temperatures required to adequately cook the precooked or cured foods discussed above without degradation. Preferably, such a pad should be placed directly adjacent the food within the package for most effective activity during cooking.
However, conventional absorbent pads absorb both water and various greases from the food. This is undesirable in that if part of the absorbent capacity of the pad is occupied by moisture, insufficient capacity may remain for grease. Alternatively, the capacity of the pad must be increased by increasing the size and weight of the pad, at additional expense.
It is also desirable in many cases for water exuded from a food in the form of steam during cooking to be maintained in close proximity to the food so as to evenly distribute heat within the package and to reduce the cooking time for the food. An additional problem occurs during extended storage and transportation of a package containing a food having substantial amounts of water and grease. A pad that absorbs water as well as grease will tend to gradually absorb water from the food. Thus, a subsequent measurement will show that the weight of the food has been reduced compared to the weight at the time the package was sealed.